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October 7, 2006

Oral argument in Ninth Circuit en banc reasonableness cases

The big en banc argument on reasonableness review in the Ninth Circuit took place on Friday (in which I submitted this amicus brief), and the audio file can now be accessed here. All Booker fans will want to listen, and all will likely be encouraged by the thoughtfulness of all the Ninth Circuit judges' questions.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed by the arguments made by defense counsel, and to being wowed (as I usually am) by the arguments made by Michael Dreeben on behalf of the government. In my view, the defendants' consel should have focused far more on the provisions and precise text of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). But I was highly encouraged that Judge Kozinski and some other judges pushed the statutory text hard in questioning of Michael Dreeben. I am now hoping that Judge Kozinski writes the opinion for the court in these en banc cases.

What, no sentencing?

This New York Times article discusses my alma mater's recent revamping of its curriculum; Harvard Law School students will now have to take "a course in legislation and regulation; one of three new courses dealing with international law; and a course on legal problem solving." Kudos to HLS for its (long overdue) update to its curriculum, especially given "the place the institution has in the history of legal education."

I have argued here that sentencing is the most "under-taught" class in law schools, and I am not at all surprised that sentencing has not jumped into HLS's mandatory curriculum. But, more problematically, sentencing has not often been an elective course at HLS. That is a real shame (and perhaps a reason many elite junior lawyers are not adequately familiar with some of the most pressing modern criminal law issues).

Another Enron cooperator gets shortened sentence

As detailed in this article, another Enron cooperator has received a shorter sentence as a result of that cooperation. Here are some details:

Enron Corp.'s former No. 2 investor relations executive who helped link former company Chairman Ken Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling to fraud in their trial earlier this year will serve probation for two years for insider trading, a judge ruled Thursday.

Paula Rieker, 52, wept before U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon, prompting a court staff member to hand her a box of tissues as she asked for probation. Insider trading carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but Rieker was eligible to serve probation to six months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines.

October 6, 2006

A terrific district court opinion on acquitted conduct

Regular readers know that I find puzzling — and especially troubling after Blakely and Booker — federal approval of sentence enhancements based on acquitted conduct. (Consider, for example, my sincere questions about acquitted conduct.) Thus, I am pleased to enter a long weekend by spotlighting a wonderful new district court opinion that thoughtfully explains why acquitted conduct should no longer be used at sentencing now that Booker mandates that the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) guide sentencing decison-making.

The opinion comes from District Judge Walter Kelley in US v Ibanga, No. No. 2:04cr227 (E.D. Va. Oct. 5, 2006) (available for download below). There are so many great passages in Ibagna it deserves repeated readings. Here are just a few highlights:

Sentencing a defendant to time in prison for a crime that the jury found he did not commit is a Kafka-esque result.... [But rather than reach a definitive constitutional ruling on this practice after Booker, the] Court instead concluded that basing defendant Ibanga's sentence on the crimes for which he was acquitted would contravene the statutory factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)....

Punishing defendant Ibanga for his acquitted conduct would have contravened the statutory goal of furthering respect for the law and would have resulted in unjust punishment for the offense for which he was convicted (i.e., money laundering). 18. U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(A). From defendant Ibanga's perspective, a Guidelines sentence would certainly have resulted in confusion as to the law, and confusion breeds contempt. Defendant Ibanga is an immigrant to this country who has not had the benefit of extensive education, much less an intensive law school seminar on post-Booker sentencing practices. What could instill more confusion and disrespect than finding out that you will be sentenced to an extra ten years in prison for the alleged crimes of which you were acquitted? The law would have gone from something venerable and respected to a farce and a sham....

The jury as an institution not only guards against judicial despotism, but also provides an opportunity for lay citizens to become both pupils of and participants in our legal and political system.... A sentence that repudiates the jury's verdict undermines the juror's role as both a pupil and participant in civic affairs. The juror as pupil learns that the law does not value the results of his or her participation in the judicial process and may reject it at will.

SCOTUS grants cert to supervise Texas capital work

As detailed here at SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court granted cert on two cases today, one of which is a capital case out of Texas. This is particularly interesting for reasons well explained in Lyle Denniston's post:

The second case is a prisoner appeal in a capital case, Smith v. Texas (05-11304, opinion below). The Supreme Court had overturned LaRoyce L. Smith's death sentence in November 2004, but the sentence was reimposed by Texas state courts....

The new case appears to be the latest episode in a continuing test of wills between the Supreme Court and Texas state courts over the standards to be used in capital sentencing proceedings. Four former federal judges, supporting Smith's appeal, urged the Court to hear the case "to reaffirm that lower courts, on remand, must comply with this Court's mandates and must not invent new procedural obstacles to avoid compliance." This amici brief said that the Smith case involves resistance to the Supreme Court's earlier mandate. The Texas court, on remand, created and applied "a harmless error analysis that had never before been applied in this case or context.... What the state court has done in this case is flout this Court's interpretation of [constitutional] guarantees. Such an action should not be permitted to stand, for it undermines the Constitution, our federal system, and this Court's role in the enforcement of limits imposed by both."

Today was the big en banc argument on reasonableness review in the Ninth Circuit (relevant links below). I am hoping that someone in attendance at the argument might file a field report (although the audio should soon be available here).

In the meantime, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion today in US v Nichols, No. 03-30503 (9th Cir. Oct. 6, 2006) (available here), which interesting has an extended dicussion of reasonableness review. Nichols is interesting for lots of reasons (and has lots of aspects). It especially spotlights that prosecutors may often be far more lenient in the exercise of their discretion than judges. In Nichols, the government "explicitly recommended a 30-month sentence" for a defendant with a "horrendous" criminal history. But the sentencing judge, following 3553(a), concluded he needed instead to impose a sentence of 57 months. The Ninth Circuit in Nichols finds this longer sentence reasonable, concluding with this sentiment:

The district court's approach was reasoned and addressed factors specified in § 3553(a). More importantly, Nichols has not demonstrated that the district court overlooked any significant factor, gave improper weight to any factor or otherwise imposed an unreasonable sentence. It may be that a 30-month sentence also would have been reasonable, but the issue here is whether the sentence imposed was unreasonable. It was not.

Sentence reductions to revive an aging Miranda?

As previously noted here, today the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law is having a symposium on "Miranda at 40." As detailed in this schedule, this event is bringing together many leading lights on interrogation law and policy (and will be webcast).

I am not a Miranda expert, but I do tend to bring my sentencing prespective to all debates over police practices. Specifically, when I teach the police practices course and we get to discussing remedies, I often ask students whether a better remedy than the exclusionary rule for police misdeeds might be sentence reductions. I always find it useful and interesting to speculate about the impact on decision-making by police, prosecutors and judges if a standard remedy for unlawful police behavior was an automatic (and steep?) sentencing discount rather than exclusion.

For many years, students rightly viewed my remedy talk as an academic flight of fancy. But, in the wake of Justice Scalia's interesting recent exclusionary rule jujitsu in Hudson, perhaps we might start seeing a more robust and serious discussion of alternatives to the exclusionary rule.

When the #@$* hits the (sentencing) fan

Especially the Friday before a long weekend, I can't help but spotlight this little AP story, headlined "Man Apologizes for Courtroom Feces." Here is the stink:

A Chicago man apologized for spreading his feces around a courtroom during his trial on drug charges. Vandale Amos Willis, 28, apologized Wednesday before being sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Willis was convicted earlier of importation of a controlled substance, cocaine, and two other charges....

He asked Judge David Sullivan to put him on probation. Sullivan told Willis his actions wouldn't be held against him, but there was no reason to depart from sentencing guidelines.

A court in the Northern District of California is currently hearing expert testimony regarding a challenge to California's lethal injection protocols, which are materially similar to Florida's procedures. Morales v. Woodford, No. C-06-219-JF-RS (N.D. Cal. 2006). Rutherford deserves the same opportunity. Consequently, I would grant Rutherford's Application for a Stay of Execution, permitting him to return to the district court for a hearing on the merits of his § 1983 claim.

A federal judge considering the constitutionality of the way California kills condemned inmates has asked prosecutors and defense lawyers a series of questions — including how the lethal injection procedures could be improved — that pose difficulties for both sides, experts say.

October 5, 2006

OSJCL symposium on state sentencing after Blakely

My co-authored article urging SCOTUS to bring some order to its sentencing jurisprudence in Cunningham (discussed/linked here) is part of a symposium on state sentencing after Blakely in the (soon to go to press) Fall 2006 issue the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. The other major pieces in the symposium are to be Professor Richard Frase's piece, entitled "Blakely in Minnesota, Two Years Out: Guidelines Sentencing is Alive and Well," and Chief Justice Michael Wolff's piece, entitled "Missouri's Information-Based Discretionary Sentencing System."

I will provide links to these pieces soon. In the meantime, you can get a taste of their insights from the introduction to the symposium that guest editor Steve Chanenson and I put together, which is entitled "The Real (Sentencing) World: State Sentencing in the Post-Blakely Era." That intro can be downloaded below, and here is a paragraph from its start:

The symposium in this issue of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law seeks to ensure that the broader stories of Blakely and modern state sentencing reforms get the attention they merit. Looking ahead to future Supreme Court rulings and looking back on post-Blakely developments, contributors to this Symposium enrich our understanding of Blakely's impact and enhance the insights to be drawn from state sentencing reform efforts.

California's state of (prison) emergency

As detailed in this Los Angeles Times article, California's overcrowded prisons has now led Arnold Schwarzenegger to proclaim a state of emergency, which "could allow the transfer of inmates as soon as next month to other states without their consent." The article explains that Gov. Schwarzenegger said "he was taking the extraordinary step because teeming conditions have created a health risk and 'extreme peril' for officers and inmates at 29 of the state's 33 prisons." Here are some details:

Though overcrowding has long been an issue in the state's lockups, it has reached crisis levels over the last few years, with most of California's prisons packed to twice their intended capacity. Of the 172,000 men and women behind bars, about 17,000 are in what Tilton called "bad beds" — bunks in areas not designed as living space. Prisoners now sleep in converted gyms, hallways and lounges. Roughly 1,500 sleep in triple-decker bunks.

Regulating executions in California

This Los Angeles Times article, entitled "The Chaos Behind California Executions," provides highlights from the four days of hearings last week in federal district court concerning California's lethal injections protocol. And now, thanks to Boalt Law School's great death penalty clinic website, you can access the elaborate follow-up questions that Judge Fogel has asked the parties in this Request for Briefing.

One almost needs a medical degree to fully appreciate the many questions Judge Fogel is asking about California's execution protocol. As a result, I cannot help but again wonder, as I have before in this post and this article, why the examination and regulation of California's execution processes is unfolding in a federal district court rather than in the state legislature.

October 4, 2006

Yet another notable on-line law journal companion

Others in the blogosphere here and here have noted the announcement of the American Constitution Society's new affiliated journal, the Harvard Law & Policy Review (HL&PR). What I find most intriguing about this project is that it begins with the unveiling of HL&PR Online, which becomes yet another high-profile on-line companion to another high-profile law journal. Others in the booming genre (in order of appearance?) are:

CORRECTION: I received this "urgent correction" from friends in New Haven (which is now reflected in this list above):

I must request that you amend your recent [initial] post, which suggests that Harvard's Forum predates our beloved Pocket Part. Harvard's first posting is here; please observe that the URL clearly contains the date "dec05." Compare our first post; published two months earlier -- an eon in blog-time!

They may have beaten us to the punch in 1887, but we can't allow them to steal pride of place in 2005.

On goes the Foley scandal

You would think the folks in DC would some day realize that cover-ups are often the source of more trouble than the trouble itself. Today, according to reports from ABC, efforts to cover up Rep. Foley's actions has led to one GOP staffer resigning. Meanwhile, Orin Kerr is again working on unpacking various criminal law issues raised by the tangled web still being woven.

Blakely's silver lining (to go with its heart of gold)

Regular readers know I am a fan of the Blakely ruling on its own terms. But critics of Blakely and Booker will want to be sure to check out Joanna Shepard's arguments, set out in her new paper entitled "Blakely's Silver Lining: Sentencing Guidelines, Judicial Discretion, and Crime," that Blakely could ultimately produce a reduction in crime rates. Here is the abstract to this intriguing paper:

The Supreme Court's recent striking down of criminal sentencing guidelines in its Booker and Blakely decisions could have a substantial unexpected benefit: the likely expansion in judicial discretion may reduce crime. I show that, contrary to the expectations of many of the original supporters of sentencing guidelines, guidelines are associated with significant increases in crime. After developing several economic theories of guidelines' impacts, I investigate these impacts empirically using a large state-level data set. This study is the first to use regression analysis to explore the relationship between sentencing guidelines and crime. Results show that guidelines are associated with increases in both violent crime and property crime. If, as is probable, the alternatives to guidelines after Booker and Blakely expand judicial discretion in criminal sentencing, then crime may decrease substantially.

As the abstract reveals, this paper is not really about Blakely and jury trial rights, but rather about the relationship between judicial sentencing discretion and crime rates. The Justice Department has been saying, since Blakely and before, that rigid mandatory sentencing guidelines have helped produce a reduction in crime. This paper seems to argue that the opposite is true. (Personally, I think these complex dynamics cannot be subject to any simple cause-effect relationship.)

UPDATE: Michael Connelly here at Corrections Sentencing has a strong review of this article. He notes some methological concerns and then shares there concluding sentiments:

It's useful for the points it manages to make and for the hole it puts in the conventional wisdom. We need this kind of shakeup of our suppositions. What the article needed was peer review by trained criminologists and political scientists, not folks trained in the narrow cognitive world of law and econ. The author would have had to have made a much better argument, but the one made is one that must be considered by all of us, nevertheless.

Proofs of Making Sentencing Sensible

As first detailed here, Stephanos Bibas and I have authored an article urging SCOTUS to bring some order to its sentencing jurisprudence as it considers Cunningham, the California Blakely case. The article, entitled "Making Sentencing Sensible," is now in proofs and will very soon be published in the Fall 2006 issue of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.

Commentors provided terrific feedback on the earlier draft here (and via e-mail), and now I am posting below the revised draft that incorporates this feedback. We still have a few days to catch any typos or other small errors on the proof, so feel free to keep the helpful feedback coming.

Read all the Blakely retroactivity SCOTUS arguments

We are now only a week away from SCOTUS arguments in Cunningham, the big case about Blakely's application to California's structured sentencing system (background at this category archive). But if retroactivity issues are more your cup of Blakely tea — an issue soon to come before the Court in Burton — a lot of exciting reading is now available.

Thanks to Kent Scheidegger providing this post at Crime & Consequences and this link, everyone can now easily access all of the briefs filed so far in Burton. In an e-mail, Kent noted that the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation's amicus brief at pages 14-15 cites to my very first post about Blakely as evidence that Blakely announced a new rule. (Not surprisingly, the CJLF brief does not highlight that I might consider Blakely a watershed rule under Teague even if it does qualify as new.)

There is a lot of heavy lifting in all these briefs, but I hope to comment at length about the arguments being made in Burton, and the broader realities of Blakely retroactivity, as the oral argument date (Noember 7) approaches.

Comparing Ebbers and Fatsow sentencing outcomes

Over at Jurist, guest columnist Douglas Branson has this very interesting commentary about recent white-collar prosecutions and sentencings entitled "Fastow and Ebbers: A Tale of Two Criminals." The commentary is full of intriguing insights, and it closes with this paragraph:

What do we learn from this? One, corporate CEOs are much like ship captains: they may be blamed for everything that happens on their watch, whether they are complicit or not. Two, the much ballyhooed Department of Justice guidelines mean nothing in high profile white collar crime cases. They don't prevent lynching the less blameworthy; they also permit a mere slap on the wrist to the greedy, the sophisticated, and the stealthy if they turn state's evidence. Three, Ebbers should serve roughly the same as, or only a little more, or even a little less, time than should Andrew Fastow, at least if we are concerned about doing justice.

The circuit have been relatively quiet on Booker matters lately. I suppose this is good news, given that rulings like the Fifth Circuit recent work in US v. Roush, No. 05-10238 (5th Cir. Oct. 3, 2006) (available here), can produce more confusion than clarity about reasonableness review after Booker.

Roush involves sentencing in a tax evasion case that is complicated legally and factually both at the district and circuit level. The case comes to the Fifth Circuit based on the defendant's appeal of his 27-month sentence, but the defendant seems to lose by winning. The Roush panel finds the defendant's sentence unreasonable, but does so through an opinion that suggests that the defendant's should be higher, not lower, at resentencing.

Folks who know something about tax law — paging Paul Caron — might have a lot to say (and criticize?) about aspects of Roush. I will just spotlight that Roush provides yet another example of a circuit framing and judging reasonableness in reference to the guidelines, rather than in reference to the provisions of § 3553(a). As I have lamented the in prior posts here and here, circuits keep exploring how a sentence measures up relative to the guidelines, rather than exploring how a sentence measures up relative to the purposes of punishment set out in § 3553(a)(2).

October 3, 2006

Holy moly Foley!

Details about former Rep. Foley's unsavory behavior continues to dribble out: the ABC news blog and CNN are now both reporting that "Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page." For law geeks, this latest revelation leads to interesting legal questions about whether "Internet sex" qualifies as "sexual activity" under various potentially applicable state and federal criminal laws.

Those thinking through criminal law issues might be interested in the early numbers from an ABC poll asking: "What sort of punishment is appropriate for former Congressman Mark Foley"? With 10,000 responses as of 5pm EDT, almost 75% are already indicating that "He should face criminal charges," with another 20% saying "Not sure. The case needs to be investigated further." Less than 5% of respondents indicate that they think he has been punished enough because "He has already resigned from his position."

UPDATE: Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy does a strong job here walking through some of the legal issues raised if (and when?) federal prosecutors consider pursuing federal charges against Foley. And TChris here at TalkLeft spotlights that Foley's still-emerging excuses for his behavior are very unlikely to shift public opinion that is obviously so solidly against him.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Consider the developing Foley saga against the backdrop of this local article from Pennsylvania discussing an event in which State Attorney General Tom Corbett warned high school students about "clean-cut" predators using the internet to try to arrange sexual encounters with young people. This closing passage from the article is especially interesting:

Students peppered Corbett with questions after the talk, asking him why people become predators and how much jail time they face. Corbett said the penalties could range from a few years for someone who attempts to have sex with a young person, to more than a decade if they carry out the act. ''The [sentencing] guidelines haven't caught up with what is happening with technology and crimes,'' he said.

SCOTUS opening day fever ... read it!

I previewed here the criminal law cases argued today to open October Term 2006. This AP report suggests that the argument regarding criminal history issues was quite interesting. And now, hooray, you do not have to take the media's word for it: as SCOTUSblog notes here, the first same-day transcripts of morning oral arguments was made available here only about three hours after the conclusion of the hearing.

I now plan to take the transcripts of these two hearings to read at a local coffee shop. I'll update this post if any passaged really catch my attention (and others should feel free to use the comments to do the same).

UPDATE: The fact that these were same-day transcripts are perhaps their most exciting element. There is a lot of heavy lifting in both arguments; the tenor of both point toward reversals, I think.

Cool stuff for USSC sycophants (like me)

I am pleased to see on the US Sentencing Commission's website that the USSC is again producing its periodic newsletter, cleverly called "GuideLines." As shown here, the Commission has not produced one of these newsletters for two years. But now this Fall 2006 issue of GuideLines provides lots of details and background on this year's USSC's activities. Huzzah!

October 2, 2006

Two big starts on Tuesday

Despite what this blog might suggest, I am still more of a sports fan than a law geek. I know this because I am more excited that tomorrow starts the MLB playoffs than that tomorrow is also the start of a new SCOTUS term.

Still, as highlighted in this effective SCOTUSblog post, the Supreme Court will start a new season of work with an argument of intrigue for sentencing fans. In the combined arguments of Lopez v. Gonzales and Toledo-Flores v. United States the Court will face an intricate guideline (and immigration) issue relating to the definition of an aggravated felony conviction under various federal laws. Also, as detailed here at DPIC, tomorrow also brings arguments in Ornaski v. Belmontes, a capital case dealing with a narrow question that may only impact a handful of cases.

Enjoy the first pitches, everyone.

UPDATE:This AP report previews the two SCOTUS criminal cases being argued on Tuesday.

How could and should Foley be prosecuted?

Late yesterday, while trying to wrap up some pre-sundown work, I had a chance to speculate about possible prosecutorial issues in what is being called predatorgate. That speculation turned into this New York Times story, which in turn has led to a lot of calls from various folks about exactly what former Rep. Mark Foley could be charged with as a result of his improper contacts with congressional pages.

I am not an expect on the reach and nuances of all sex offense laws, so I keep saying simply that federal and state prosecutors will have many legal issues to consider as the facts emerge. Indeed, as well documented here and here at one of ABC's blogs, new revelations about Foley's e-mails suggest a lot more possible grounds for criminal liability.

Because I am interested in a fair assessment of the criminal issues raised by this case without the partisan political overlay, I am eager to hear from knowledgeable folks (either in comments or via e-mail) about how they think Foley could and should be prosecuted for his behavior. Relatedly, I wonder if folks think Foley's high profile will lead to him being treated more harshly or less harshly by the criminal justice system than if there were similar revelations about the behavior of, say, a mid-level corporate executive.

October 1, 2006

SCOTUS fun: Name that Justice!

With Supreme Court previews and forecasts are all the rage, I found this piece about a particular Justice very interesting. Without clicking through to the link, see if you can name the Justice with this personal background:

[He] was a zealous prosecutor, passionately anti-Communist, pro-business, anti-New Deal, anti-gambling, anti-pornography, tough on crime..., and he favored interning California's Japanese and their American-born children after Pearl Harbor.... [H]e was a dedicated husband and father of six, an avid hunter, camper and hiker, a Mason, a passionate baseball and football fan and a regular churchgoer....

Reading just a brief account of this Justice's pre-SCOTUS personal history confirms my instinct to place very little stock in most predictions (and assertions) about who Justices are and what they are likely to decide.

How will Foley's folly impact the sex offender panic?

I am not sure if I am amazed or even phased by the revelations that Republican Rep. Mark Foley had numerous improper contacts with congressional pages. But I am puzzled when I try to figure out the implications of this latest congressional scandal for all the federal and state legislation and proposals purporting to get extra tough on sex offenders.

This CNN story details many of the latest interesting facets of this unfolding scandal:

Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned Friday after his alleged e-mail exchanges with a teenage male page were made public, and the House voted to launch an investigation. Foley apologized to his family and his constituents.

Foley, who co-chaired the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, did not mention the messages that brought him down. The six-term representative has pushed legislation to crack down on Internet child pornography and tighten tracking rules for sex offenders.

GOP sources told CNN that Foley's resignation was prompted in part by concerns that other potentially politically damaging e-mails or information might surface, including exchanges with other pages that were more graphic....

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement Saturday saying that at least one member of the Republican House leadership, Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York, had "known about the situation for months and did nothing about it."
Reynolds chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, the election campaign arm for House Republicans.
Reynolds responded by saying that when Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican, told him about the e-mails, he said the teen's parents didn't want the matter pursued. Alexander was the boy's sponsor.

Early reactions to topless guidelines bill

As detailed here, House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner has finally introduced his "topless guidelines" legislative Booker fix, a proposal about which I have already written a lot (in this article and in so many posts). I am thus pleased to see other bloggers weighing in with astute observations about the misguided aspects of this Booker fix proposal.

Ellen Podgor at White Collar Crime Prof Blog here notes that sentences are going up in a key area after Booker and she asks this insightful question: "Is there really any need for topless guidelines if the sentences are going up in the one area, white collar crime, that seems to be of enormous concern?"

Anthony J. Colleluori, aka That Lawyer Dude, here provides a fuller critique in a post entitled "Congressman Sensenbrenner Goes Topless In The House Of Representatives: Lies Our Congressmen Tell Us." Here is one of many sharp passages in his post:

Lie No. 3: Senselessbrenner states in [his press] release that "Two of the hallmarks of our judicial system, fairness and equity, have been undermined since the Supreme Court's Booker decision last year."... [But] the bipartisan committee of the Constitution Project (Chaired by Reagan Attorney General Edwin Messe and Clinton's Deputy AG Phillip Heymann) said that "topless guidelines are unconstitutional." Other commentators have noted that the guidelines now allow the sentencing courts to get the sentence right and allow the Circuits to keep everyone in line.... If Sensenbrenner really wants to protect children from exploitation, let him start on Capital Hill.

Dollars and other dynamics impacting judicial decisions

The New York Times has this extended article, focused on the Ohio Supreme Court, which explores the possible impact of campaign contributions on judicial decision-making by elected judges. The article is sobering, though contributions impacting rulings likely is not a huge problem in criminal justice cases. However, as commentors and litigants have long known, broader concerns about politics do loom very large in criminal cases (and, I would suggest, especially in cases involving sentencing issues where the basic guilt of the offender is not in dispute).